Amid escalating export limitations from the United States on cutting-edge technology and limits on international travel, China’s top airline has launched a joint venture with British aerospace company Rolls-Royce in Beijing for engine service.
According to a press release from the British aerospace business on Thursday at the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, the joint venture between Air China and Rolls-Royce will build a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in the Chinese capital.
Beijing Aero Engine Services, a recently founded company, will maintain the Trent 700, Trent XWB-84, and Trent 1000 engines for widebody passenger planes. All three engine types are included in the fleet of Air China.
According to Rolls-Royce, its engines currently power 60% of China’s widebody fleet, which includes more than 550 operational or upcoming aircraft.
According to Chris Cholerton, president of civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, “The announcement of this [joint venture] is an important milestone for Rolls-Royce in China, where we have been powering the nation’s airlines for more than 50 years.”
The new facility ““will provide services to Air China as well as its other airline customers based in Greater China and beyond,” the Rolls-Royce statement stated, though it did not specify the investment cost. It was anticipated to be fully operational by the middle of the 2030s.
An anonymous official in the Beijing Capital International Airport’s economic zone, where the new facility would be erected, was quoted by the state-run Beijing Youth Daily on Thursday as claiming the project was valued about US$378 million.
According to the official, the project “will fill the gap” in high-thrust engine maintenance in China and will support the growth of aviation services, high-end manufacturing, and tech research and development in the economic zone.
In China’s development strategy for 2021–25, aviation has been emphasized as a major area.